occasionally flying for the air force and nasa ras a consultant. in 1997 on the 50th anniversary of the his historic flight breaking the sound barrier, he flew past mach i again. it was his last official flight with the air force. but of course nothing stops chuck yeager. so last october on the 65th anniversary of breaking the sound barrier, he did it again in another aircraft at the age of 89. whenever he's asked about all of his exploits, chuck says he was just doing his job, and that all he is he owes to the air force. he's never, ever wavered from that. in his awl auto biography he wrote, "my beginnings back in west virginia tell who i am to this day. my accomplishments aes a pilot tell more about luck, happe happenstance and a persones destiny. but the guy who broke the sound barrier was the kid to swam the mud river with a swiped watermelon or shot the head off a squirrel before school." tom wolfe believed chuck yeager to be the most rightous of all possessors of the right stuff. the right stuff wolfe himself struggled to explain what he mean